


Time, Space and An Awful Lot Of Bloody Running

by iamtheoneinthehole



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-20 08:25:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1503602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamtheoneinthehole/pseuds/iamtheoneinthehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a lonely bloody life, being the last of something...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time, Space and An Awful Lot Of Bloody Running

**Author's Note:**

> So ever since I saw some incredible fanart of Gavin as the Doctor by mkaniart on tumblr I’ve been dying to write an ah ot6 Doctor Who AU and once I sat down to write it, I rapidly realized that it'd need to be a multichaptered fic since it's already taken on a life of it's own. So here's the first installment where we meet Gavin as well as the first of his companions... Hope you guys like it, enjoy!

It was a lonely bloody life, being the last of something.

Gavin had never really realized just how lonely it’d be before he’d found himself in this position, never realized the way the silence would ring in his ears as much as his people’s screams once had, the way that specific emptiness the universe now held would cling to his frame, to his hands, in a way that was impossible to wash away. They were gone. The time lords were gone and Gavin was the last and that was all his bloody fault.

He’d had no choice though. If he hadn’t done what he had, their war with the Daleks would’ve raged across the cosmos, wiping out entire galaxies and leaving nothing but destruction in its wake… it was what he told himself at night, in order to sleep easier. It rarely worked though. Because how could he rest with the faces of the millions he’d killed still haunting his dreams, his nightmares… It was nothing more than he deserved.

He shouldn’t have been the one to survive this. It should’ve been some innocent child with everything to live for, or Dan who’d fought so valiantly to protect their race, or even Mark, despite the bad blood between them, because even The Archer, if rumors could be believed, had been on the front lines when Gallifrey had fallen, even Mark bloody Nutt had given his life for the cause where Gavin had not.

And so he shouldn’t have been the one to survive this… but he had been and no matter what he did to try and change that? He knew he never could. Some things were irreversible, some things were fixed and he knew that the blood on his hands was one of them. He was always meant to be the villain of the piece, who’d betray his own race when they needed him the most. This was always meant to come to pass...

He was pretty sure Dan may even have always known this. Gavin could remember how pale his complexion had been when he’d looked into the eye of the universe, into the vortex. Could remember how his friend had avoided him for a long time after that… And he could remember Dan approaching him a few moons later, sprawling out beside him in the red grass as they’d gazed up at the skies’ two blazing suns. It’d been then that his friend had turned to him and told him he forgave him and, at the time, Gavin hadn’t had a clue what it was for. He’d simply been glad to have his friend back again but now… well now he thought maybe he did understand a little better.

It was the one piece of consolation he had in all this, the knowledge that Dan at the very least hadn’t resented him in those final moments, for the impossible choices he’d had to make.

All the same though, the weight of his decisions still bore heavily upon his mind, to the point where he’d found himself running from them every second since for the next hundred years or so, never stopping, never staying, not even bothering to interact with the worlds and the races that he’d once treasured above all else.

He hadn’t even stayed for humanity, the race that’d been his lifelong love to the point that it, admittedly, almost bordered on some kind of obsession. Certainly, Dan had liked to tease him that it was… But to Gavin, it’d just been a pure, raw sort of admiration for these people. For their superior bravery and heart, even in the face of inferior technology and understanding. They were resilient and brave and capable of building societies that wound up being bloody beautiful, magnificent even.

During his youth, it’d been Gavin’s biggest dream to visit their world, to visit Earth in its infancy, to watch it grow even as he wasn’t meant to bloody ‘interfere’ in the affairs of the other planets… he’d just wanted to see it, at the very least. And okay, maybe he’d always planned on making contact with its citizens once he’d gotten there and interfering a little but… Earth to him was like that bloody gingerbread house to Hansel and Gretel or the sonic blaster to Delta 2.Apple… how could he bloody resist?

And before the time war, before the chaos and seemingly endless destruction it wrought, he’d lived that dream. He’d visited Earth, interacted with its people, helped them even… he’d even had companions.

There’d been Barbara, a woman from the late 21st century with a particular proficiency for puns and for getting him into even more trouble than he’d have managed to cause by himself… and he’d bloody _loved_ her for it. Eventually though, she’d wanted to leave and maybe settle down a little, have a family… the last time he’d checked on her in the early 22nd, she’d gotten all her dreams and more and he was happy for her, really he was, enough so that he adamantly tried to ignore the pangs of loss he’d feel whenever he caught a flash of blonde hair, or a wide bubbly smile, in a crowd.

Then there’d been Burnie. Burnie had been from the 38th. Brilliant mind, and an equally brilliant sense of humor, since back then the comedic value of humanity had definitely been a thing that’d called to his younger self. Burnie had been nothing short of a genius as far as humanity went, his gut instincts pulling himself and the time lord out of countless close scrapes to the point that Gavin was pretty sure he’d never have managed to survive the three years they’d travelled together if it hadn’t been for that man… but Burnie hadn’t been able to say the same, not after the man had quite literally taken one too many bullets for him and suddenly the human had been lying in his arms and asking him to let his family know he loved them, cliched as that might be, and that he was sorry he hadn’t been able to tell them that himself.

Losing Burnie had caused the time lord to shut out potential companions for a while after that. In fact, it hadn’t been until Meg Turney had quite literally barrelled her way into his life with her red hair, and equally fiery personality, that Gavin had even considered travelling with someone again. But Meg had been stubborn, and Gavin incredibly lonely… and in the end, it really hadn’t really taken all that much to make him cave to the idea of having a companion again. A year later and she’d left the TARDIS, going on pursue the chances of living in the present, just like Barbara had before. Difference was, she’d told him to stay in touch, to visit when he could and, up until recently, Gavin had kept his word.

After that there’d been Caleb, Lindsay, Kerry and Kdin, all of them brilliant and all of them brave. Caleb had eventually left after a too close encounter with death, Gavin had just been grateful to not have to mourn another companion. Lindsay and Kdin both had a similar deal with him as Meg, stay in touch idiot or we’ll find a way to track you down and kick your ass until you do. Kerry… was more complicated really. After being possessed by that alien entity known as ‘Edgar’, the man had never quite been the same. He’d begged Gavin to stay away from him, and from those he cared for, after that. Not because he didn’t still care about the time lord, but because everything the time lord touched seemed to burn… and Kerry had needed those he loved to be safe from that fire.

It was a metaphor that’d proven particularly apt based on recent events, to the point that Gavin almost wondered if perhaps Kerry had seen something when the entity had control of his mind, had seen the chaos and destruction he’d bring in the time war, and if perhaps it’d been that and not Edgar’s possession that’d driven the man away. Whatever the reason had been, Gavin really didn’t blame the man for running.

After all, if he were anyone else but himself, he’d probably run from him too… especially now.

Because after the things he’d done? He knew it wasn’t safe for people to be around him, not ever, and so he kept running, running for other people’s protection as much as he was from his own sins. Because if he never settled? Well then the destruction he left in his wake would never be so great or so terrible as the damage he could do if he dared to stay.

Because Kerry had been right, all worlds burned where Gavin stayed too long. No escape and no exceptions… and he’d become a prisoner to that knowledge, to the constant fear that those unfortunate enough to stumble into his path would go up in flames and it’d kept him alone, kept him running, all to keep _them_ safe...

And considering that? He guessed it almost bloody ironic that he’d chosen, all those years ago now, to be known as ‘The Free’.

\----

History wouldn’t remember the 3rd of March 1998 as a day that was particularly important to Earth’s history.

Sure, Bill Gates would testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee… but nothing else would really leave its mark on that particular date as being an important one and, as time would pass, the day would be forgotten entirely, engulfed in the shadow of ones far more significant to the generations to come…

But somewhere on that day, in a little military base in South Carolina, something _vitally_ important happened that the history books had forgotten but that a certain time lord never would… Because that had been the day that Gavin had first laid eyes on Geoff Ramsey.

“Oi! Don’t bloody shoot, I come in peace.”

“You do know this is a highly fortified military operation right?”

“...The guns might’ve been a bit of a hint to that, yeah.”

“And so you realize that the people I’m working for won’t be too pleased about the fact that you’ve somehow managed to sneak past those defences…”

“Well yeah but…”

“...with a giant fucking blue box.” And Gavin couldn’t help the sudden, and slightly affronted, rush of emotions he felt at that description, however irrational those feelings might be, because the TARDIS was far more than just a ‘giant fucking blue box’ to him. For one, it was sentient and definitely wouldn’t appreciate being referred to like that, for another it was all he bloody had left of his home… and suddenly he found himself setting aside his need to run, if only for a moment, just to set this man straight.

“It’s not just a box it’s a…”

“Trust me kid, you want to leave this place alive? You tell ‘em it’s a box and hope to god they don’t find anything in there that’ll prove otherwise.”

“You make your highly fortified military operation sound so appealing.”

There was a slight chuckle at that and then, “It’s not meant to sound appealing, it’s meant to get results and not always in the best ways… there’s a lot of guys in here that’d shoot first, ask questions later if they saw this. You’re goddamn lucky I was the one on duty here or you’d already have about five of these...” the man used his fingers to lightly tap the trigger of his gun, “...through that obviously thick skull of yours by this point.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Because you’re not a threat.”

“How can you know…”

“Because I’m damn good at reading people and I’m surrounded by assholes on a daily basis. I know how to spot a jackass when I see one, just as much as I know how to spot a genuinely good man, as rare as those fucking are in this part of the world so… I’m telling you in the nicest way possible to abandon that weird ass box of yours and just leave while you still can.”

“Why don’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you’re surrounded by assholes and any good men should be running from this place bloody screaming, why aren’t you?”

“Because the unit shouldn’t fucking be like this… and it wasn’t always. There were good men here, men like you only… a lot less fucking dumb. And they all died sooner or later. Freak ‘accidents’, ‘disappearances’... this place is a goddamn clusterfuck at this point and someone has to take some sort of responsibility for it. To protect whatever little good that’s still left in these parts and fuck knows no one else is gonna bother with it if I leave… and for the record, I’m not a good man either. There’s a reason I’ve survived this base this far and… it’s not because I was ‘lucky’.”

Gavin guessed this was probably the point where most ‘good’ people would pull back from this man, would take his advice and run or would suddenly feel a rush of fear or reluctance to trust him but… all the time lord could feel in that moment was a rush of kinship, of understanding. Because here they were, two men who’d done terrible, unspeakable things to survive and were now just trying to do what they could to make things better. Not right, never right but… better.

Two bad men trying to be a little bit better.

But before he’d had the chance to tell the man this, or to even ask the soldier his name, there was suddenly the smooth cool feel of metal resting against the back of his skull and a man loudly barking orders for him to put his hands in the fucking air before he decided to hand the intruder over to ‘the boys’ as target practise.

And so Gavin had raised his hands, eyes never leaving the spot where the mysterious soldier had stood on lookout moments ago, pleased to see at the very least that the man had managed to retreat before Gavin had been caught, that he wouldn’t suffer here for the time lord’s curiosity… which was roughly the last coherent thought the Brit had actually managed before the butt of the man barking order’s gun had suddenly made contact with the back of his skull and then… _nothing_.

\----

“Psst… Hey! Hey dumbass, wake the fuck up.” Gavin had blearily forced his eyes open only to find himself face to face with the mysterious soldier from before… and suddenly he was far more bloody alert as he remembered why it was that there was a dull residual ache in the back of his skull, and what and who had put it there and… well, he probably shouldn’t have felt excited about the prospect of being in a highly fortified military base, surrounded by hostile soldiers who were quite obviously hiding _something_ but… well, it’d been far too bloody long since he’d gotten to do something like this.

And suddenly, despite the situation he was now in, for the first time in decades now he didn’t feel like running… or at least not in the way that he’d been before.

“Fuck… they must’ve hit you really hard. Okay, how many fingers am I holding up.”

“Well technically four but…”

“Of course you decide to be a smartass when you’d just been clubbed in the back of your fucking skull… honestly, I’m really starting to revise the whole ‘good man’ thing here because so far? All you’ve been is a fucking pain in my ass.”

“I never said you were right about me being a good man.”

“Yeah? Well you wandered into this base with not a single goddamned weapon which, incidentally, is the only reason you’ve not been shot in your sleep… and even then I had to talk them around so you fucking _owe_ me. Point is, you came unarmed so either you’re a good man, or a fucking dumbass.”

“Who says I can’t be both?” The soldier had smiled a little at that, the expression making the man seem a little younger than he had at first glance, though Gavin supposed everyone on this planet looked young in _his_ eyes. After all, he was nine hundred years old, going on nine hundred and one and humanity wouldn’t even break the five hundred year barrier until 2151. So yeah, considering that, he guessed he’d always seen this man as young but… the experiences he’d had here had aged him considerably. Not outwardly but… his eyes were old, older than his physical body gave them any right to be. He’d seen things no man should, of that Gavin had very little doubt, but… when he smiled, those burdens seemed to filter out a little and the time lord found he could almost catch a glimpse of the man this soldier must’ve been before he was posted here. And whatever the soldier claimed he was now, back then he’d definitely been good.

“Well to be fair, I _am_ starting to wonder about that… well, I figure you’re already pretty fucked at this point so knowing my name won’t make things much worse… I’m Geoff, Geoff Ramsey.”

“The F-Actually, you know bloody what? Gavin, my name’s Gavin.” Because the time lord was bloody done with that title. If he was really going to interfere again, and finally stop bloody running from his crimes, it’d be under a fresh name and a new start. ‘The Free’ would have to be left behind him and… well, what better bloody name to use instead than his own.

“Gavin huh? Got a last name to go with that?”

“Free, Gavin Free.” Well maybe not an entirely new name but… new enough that he felt a little less guilty saying it while still holding onto that reminder of his past to drive him forwards and encourage him not to make the same choices, the same mistakes.

“Well, good to meet you Gavin Free… sorry it’s not under better circumstances.”

“Eh don’t worry about it, I’m kind of used to stuff like this.”

“What… you’re used to sneaking into high profile military organizations?”

“Something like that.”

“So when I assumed before that you’d somehow _accidentally_ stumbled across this place, I was really underestimating you huh?”

“Nah, I really did wind up here by accident.”

“With a giant fucking blue box?”

“It’s not just a bloody blue box! It’s the TARDIS.”

There was a long pause as Geoff seemed to assess him with a look the Brit could only really describe as utter bewilderment and then, “...There’s no goddamn way that’s a real word.”

“What’s not a real word?”

“Fucking TARDIS. What the hell’s that even supposed to mean?”

“It’s a bloody acronym. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.”

“So the blue box with the weird name’s a time machine? Yeah, I’m really not buying it.”

“Why not?”

“It’s made of fucking wood.”

Gavin spluttered a little indignantly as he rushed to the TARDIS’ defence because, “What’s wrong with wood?”

“It’s flimsy as hell. It’d probably damn well _burn_ if you actually tried to build a time machine out of it.”

“Hey! Wood’s tough okay! It’s the only material that sonic technology can’t manipulate.”

“Sonic technology? Okay now I know you’re either fucking with me or you’re fucking insane.”

“I’m not bloody insane! And I’ll prove it to you…” Gavin’s hands moved to his pockets, digging around in them for a good few minutes before he’d suddenly realized they were empty... _Bollocks_. “Where are they?”

“What the blank piece of paper and the tacky looking gold pen?”

“It’s a bloody screwdriver!”

“It’s fucking awful is what it is.”

“It’s the sonic of pimps!”

“...I’m pretty sure I don’t even _want_ to know why you call it that.”

“It’s bloody top!”

“And again with the made up words… look, here’s your ‘sonic of pimps’ and the paper, I managed to swipe them before the others did a full body search, figured they probably held some kind of sentimental value since they’re pretty fucking useless as actual weapons.”

Gavin fell quiet for a moment after that, his expression shifting to something a little more serious as he’d offered a, “Just because something’s not a weapon, doesn’t mean it’s bloody useless.”

“How about we debate those ethics when you’re not being held prisoner by a bunch of heavily armed and seriously fucking trigger happy soldiers, huh?”

“...Yeah okay, sounds like a plan.” And with that he was handed back the screwdriver along with his psychic paper, the man quickly tucking both away in his pockets before he’d turned his attention back to Geoff, watching as the man began to pace the small cell that they’d apparently been holding the time lord in while he’d been passed out, “What is it about this place that has you so scared Geoff?”

“Who says I’m scared?”

“You did. When you told me to leave because I was a ‘good man’. You’re scared of something and I want to know what that something is.”

“Why?”

“Because if I know, I can help.”

“What… you with your ‘sonic of pimps’ and your sheet of paper and your blue box with the weirdass name?”

“TARDIS.”

“TARDIS whatever… point still stands that you don’t exactly make a convincing case for someone who can take on… well, this.”

“Well you know you can’t, not alone, and a part of you still hopes I can. It must do or you’d never have told me anything.”

“What have I told you that-”

“You told me your name. In my experience, people only do that with people they trust, or people that they’d like to.” The man’s brow had furrowed a little at that.

“...Can you help?”

“I’ll only know if you tell me what we’re dealing with here.”

The soldier sighed and, for a long moment, Gavin was almost convinced that he’d read the situation entirely wrong. It’d been a hell of a long time since he’d interacted with humanity after all and, chances were, he’d forgotten enough of the subtle nuances that made this race so bloody great that he’d managed to approach this situation from the wrong angle and then… “It all started with that goddamned meteor shower.”

And just like that, there were warning bells blaring in Gavin’s brain because meteor shower? The only meteor shower that was meant to pass over the Earth that year was the Leonids… and that wasn’t meant to be visible for bloody _months_ yet so… whatever Geoff had seen, it sure as hell hadn’t been a bloody meteor, “What did it look like?”

“Bright, glowing, fiery… I don’t know, what do meteor showers usually look like?”

“Bright, glowing, fiery… what kind of glow was it?”

“Um… white I guess? I remember it being pretty goddamned bright. We were all pretty much blinded for a few minutes there, actually thought an enemy had thrown a flash grenade at first… and there was something else.”

“Something else?”

“Dark… like a shadow moving across the light. It headed towards our commander and then… the lights were gone and the commander was… I don’t know, different I guess.”

“What happened after that?”

“We saw some lights move across the sky and we all passed it off as a meteor shower. Now though… I’m not so sure.”

“Was it just the commander that changed?”

“At first yeah but… then it started spreading through the chain of command. At first I figured it was just them getting some kind of sadistic kick out of fucking with the rest of us… don’t get me wrong, this place has always been a _little_ bit backwards but… not on this scale. Because then they started targeting people with the unit. Rookies, people who talked back, people who tried to run… started killing people who wouldn’t ‘cooperate’.”

“And you feel like you’re not a good man anymore because you let them.”

“I _know_ I’m not one because I put some of those goddamn bullets there myself.”

“...You’re not the first good man to have done terrible things in the name of survival.”

“Yeah? You speaking from personal experience there?”

“What if I am?”

“...Well, then I guess I _definitely_ underestimated you before when I assumed that you were harmless.”

“Here’s a thing you should remember Geoff. If a man walks into a dangerous situation unarmed, it’s not because he’s harmless, or somehow ‘better’ than the men he faces… it’s because that man has blood on his hands, enough to make him bloody desperate to do things some other way.” There was a heavy silence between them for a few seconds as the soldier seemed to reassess his opinion of Gavin a little.

“You’re telling me you’ve killed innocent people?”

“I’m telling you you’d be happier never knowing the answer to that question.”

“...Okay then, I won’t ask. Though for the record, I wouldn’t judge either. I’m sure you’re reasons seemed valid at the time, or perhaps you were as scared I as was and did it for survival… I don’t fucking care. What matters is you’re desperate to find another way that doesn’t involve violence and… as crazy as it sounds, maybe we need someone like that on this base right about now.”

There was beat of silence as a quiet sort of understanding seemed to pass between the two men… and then there heard a door slam in the distance, footsteps rapidly approaching Gavin’s cell that Geoff was quick to exit after that, all with the promise of coming back later so they could figure out some kind of plan of action here.

And then suddenly, he’d been left alone in a cell and painfully aware of the fact that he still hadn’t quite managed to narrow down the species of the creature he was facing here from his memory bank of possessive light-based entities… well that was until the commander had entered the room and suddenly he’d known with an absolute certainty what it was he was facing here.

_Venelux_ as humanity would one day name them, _the supreme ones_ as these beings would know themselves, a name derived from the term ‘Venenatus Lux’; poisonous light, a term humanity had invented only after the first known encounter with species, several centuries into their future now and yet… here they were, so far from Arkanna, so far from their home… and all his fault that they were.

It knew it too, the creature possessing the commander in front of him, it knew _him_. Recognized him perhaps from the tales of his travesties, the ones he’d been running from all this time, desperate not to hear what the universe now thought of him, even as he knew that whatever their resentment, their hatred for him, it would never match his own for himself. “The _Free_ in a cage… how fitting.”

“The Venelux making insults… how original.”

“Says the time lord who still travels around in that same blue box of his.”

“Hey the blue box is a bloody classic.”

“Isn’t that a term humanity uses for things that are outdated somehow? Out of their time?” The creature was smirking a little, turning it’s host’s lips up in a way that honestly made Gavin’s skin bloody _crawl_ a little.

“Says the thousand year old glowing entity who wasn’t meant to jump inside a human for another three hundred years or so.”

“That time framed changed when _you_ changed time.”

“I fixed time.”

“In the same way I ‘fixed’ this military operation. They were wasting time training the weak, the disobedient. There was no fear within their ranks and, therefore, no focus.”

“And being terrified of your commander solves everything does it?”

“Fear is a powerful motivator Free. It can make you many allies if you use it to your advantage... and many more if you allow it to work against you.”

“Like _I_ did you mean?”

The creature wandered a little closer to his cell, eyes holding Gavin’s through the bars for a few moments before he began to pace, that slight smirk making the time lord feel even more uncomfortable when it was this close, “The universe is terrified of you. Those who call themselves ‘Free’ now are seen as sympathisers, even if those who do so unaware of the implications… and this planet especially seems obsessed with the notion. My people are teaching them a valuable lesson here. To call yourselves ‘Free’ is to be oppressed.”

“And you claim _that_ is fixing things?”

“It’s a better solution that ‘the free’ man who cannot escape his own past, ‘the soldier’ who wanders through time, leaving only destruction in his wake…”

“It resolves nothing!”

“Much like your attempts to put an end to the Time War then.”

“I _did_ put an end to it.”

“No war ever truly ends so long as there are survivors to tell its tale and carry on the fight. You may play the good man well now Free, but you’re still as much a warrior as the day you watched the sky of your home world burn, and your people burn with it.”

“And yours too.” And suddenly Gavin found himself understanding this creature’s motivations.

“You could have saved Arkanna. Instead you chose to abandon us in our hour of need, so focused on saving the planet you planned to burn that you forgot we even existed. You ignored us, even as the Daleks came and our children screamed…”

“I had no choice!”

“In battle there’s always a choice! You chose wrong. The sooner you start to admit that, the sooner you’ll actually start to live up to the impression you wish to set of this ‘better man’.”

“I can’t believe I’m being lectured on morality by a bloody parasite.”

“A parasite that doesn’t pretend about its nature is still better than a time lord that does.”

“And what about the man you’re possessing? What do you think he thinks about all this?”

“The man I’m possessing hardly matters. You and I both know he’s dead the moment I leave the worn out husk of his body and dead men don’t talk, let alone have opinions to give. Perhaps _that’s_ why you chose to silence the battlefield during the time war. Wiping out entire worlds, entire races, just so they couldn’t possibly speak badly of you… I may be a parasite Free, but you’re still a far bigger monster than I am.”

“You’re right.”

“...I’m sorry?”

“I said, you’re right. I murdered entire races and watched the skies burn, I heard children scream and did nothing, watched people beg and didn’t help. I let them die, I killed them myself… and they were people I _loved_. So just imagine what I could do to your people if you pushed me too far.” There’d been the slightest flicker of the lights around them, miniscule, barely there but enough for Gavin to know he had the creature scared, “How many are you? Six, seven… no more than that I’d imagine, not in the little time you’ve been here. How strong? Not strong enough if there was only one of your kind when you crashed…”

“But there’s only one of _your_ kind too. Weak or not, we still outnumber you.”

“True… and were I a good man, I imagine you’d win with those odds but… here’s the thing. I’m not. As you said before, I’m a monster. And monsters? Well, we don’t fight fair.” And with that he flicked to the right the setting on his sonic, watching as the man in front of him shuddered and shook until he fell to the ground, dead as the waveform had promised, but taking the parasite with him in the process… it wasn’t the ideal solution but at least it was something.

It took longer than Gavin would’ve liked to admit for his to realize he wasn’t alone in the room, that Geoff had hidden himself away in one of its corners, clearly having intended to keep an eye on the man who was apparently willing to help  save his base… The man’s jaw was in an open gape as he stared, wide-eyed, at the spot where the commander’s body had just landed to the ground with a light _thud_ noise.

“...So, perhaps the fucking ‘sonic of pimps’ isn’t quite so useless… what did you even _do_?”

“Blocked the electrical signals between the host and the parasite. The Venelux can’t survive outside their own planet without a host to support them.”

“So you sonic-ed it to death?”

“...Kind of yeah.”

And with that, a disbelieving, almost giddy laugh escaped Geoff’s lips, the man moving over to the cell to let him out moments later, “You said before there were five or six others… do you think you could do the same to them?”

“I could give it a try.”

\----

Four hours later found Gavin doing what he’d, lately at least, found himself to be best at; bloody running. Only this time, he wasn’t the only one. Because the mysterious soldier, the man who wasn’t good but was trying to be a little better, Geoff Ramsey was at his side, the man’s giddy exhilarated laughter filling the air as the two of them stumbled their way across the base, pursued by a few men who’d, unfortunately, seen the last of their commanders go down and had, naturally, come to the wrong bloody conclusions because of that… To be fair, it had looked pretty bad, even from his perspective so he hadn’t exactly been surprised when he and Geoff had been run off the base moments later.

And now here they were, dodging bullets and heading full pelt towards his trusty blue box and his hearts were pounding and it’d been bloody centuries since Gavin had felt this _alive._

They’d arrived at the TARDIS is a mess of Geoff telling him to hurry the fuck up as his hands fumbled for the key, _finally_ managing to jam it in the lock just seconds before the bullets would’ve managed to catch Geoff in the leg, the two of them stumbling inside moments later, the time lord far too preoccupied for a moment with making damn sure that the door was shut before he’d turned to face the soldier who was…

Currently staring ahead at the control panel in front of him with a look of pure untempered _awe…_

And Gavin felt a sudden rush of warmth unfurl within his chest at the sight of it. Because he’d forgotten how incredible this part was, the moment they first saw this technology, first knew there was something else out there, that they weren’t alone in the universe. It was a rush that never quite left him, the wonder of seeing these incredible, remarkable people he met see for themselves how bloody big and varied and wonderful the universe really was, really could be.

“Fucking hell. It’s…”

“...bigger on the inside?”

“No shit Sherlock… and I was actually gonna say that I stood corrected about the wooden time machine.”

“Well it’s not actually wood… it’s actually a chameleon circuit that…”

“Gavin?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re killing the moment. I don’t need to know the science behind this stuff. I’m not an idiot but… I know it’s still gonna go right over my head. Just tell me this. Can they get in through that door?”

“No chance in hell.”

“And this thing really travels in time?”

“And space… and sometimes other dimensions too but that usually means you’ve taken a wrong turn in the time-space continuum and then…”

“Gavin.”

“Killing the moment again?”

“We’re standing in a goddamn time machine… I think you get a free pass at that one.”

“Top! So… since you like it so much and those men with guns aren’t gonna go away anytime soon since _technically_ you did kill their commander...”

“Hey you were the one with the screwdriver…”

“And you were the one with the gun. They’re gonna think it was you, regardless of what the truth was here… but if you came with me? It wouldn’t really matter what they thought, would it? Because you’d be in a different time, on a different planet even… years before or after they’d ever been a thought in the cosmos… I just, I want to be that better man we were talking about before and… if you were with me? I just, I get the feeling it might help a little.”

“Why? I hardly did anything out there I…”

“You made me stop running. For the first time in centuries…”

“Centuries? Wait how old _are_ you exactly…”

“Geoff?”

“Yeah?”

“Killing the moment.” A surprised burst of laughter came to the man’s lips at that and Gavin found he couldn’t help but join in, the almost melodic sound filling the console room that’d been a little too empty for far too long now, “So… what do you say?”

“This thing travels to any place?”

“Any place.”

“Any time?”

“Any time.”

“What kind of dumbass says no to an offer like that?”

A sad sort of smile crossed the time lord’s lips as Gavin remembered exactly what ‘kind of dumbass’ had turned him down at first, all those years ago, only to track him down a few years later claiming that he ‘took it all back now show him some aliens goddammit’... yeah, sometimes he really missed Burnie, “You’d be surprised.”

“I have been so far.” There’d been a long moment of silence as the two had shared a smile, a rush of a giddy sort of excitement passing through him and causing him to bound up the runway towards the control panel moments later, his hand resting over one of the levers on the console as he turned to Geoff with a wide grin and a question on his lips that a part of him had been waiting far too long to get the chance to ask again…

“So any time, any place… where do you want to start?”


End file.
